Page 8 of Bound by Stars

Jupiter

Thirty-five days to Mars

Of course, my parents are seated at the table in the center of the dining room.

What fun is dragging your son back home to a future he doesn’t want if you can’t flaunt it in front of hundreds of the closest living humans?

Skye and her parents join the table, everyone standing, pulling out chairs, and shaking hands.

My mother cranes her long neck, surveying the busy space and searching for me.

I lower my head and cut left toward my friends at the side of the room.

Tar pats my arm and leans over the empty seat to read the name projected on the plate before circling to find his place. “Who’s W. Fleet?”

“The Earther girl,” Curran replies, without looking up from typing on the tablet in his lap.

The Earther girl who’s unwillingly saving me from my mother. Not that she’s going to make it easy. Still, I’d rather convince her than be locked up in my family’s quarters with the tutor for the next month.

Hale leans back, precariously balancing on the back legs of his chair. “I’m not sure how I feel about being seated with an Earther.”

“She’s perfectly nice,” Asha assures him like it’s fear and not snobbery concerning Hale.

I squint at Asha, remembering the way Weslie ruthlessly blew me off after Calypso left the classroom.

Next to Asha, Tar laughs. “You think everyone’s nice.”

“I was more worried about fleas. We’ve all seen how they live.” Hale crosses his arms, rocking back further.

Hale’s limbs fly in all directions when I pull his seat back, holding him two feet from the floor. “And you think everyone is beneath you.”

“Will you let me up? She’s not coming anyway.” He uselessly tries to reach for the edge of the table.

I hoist him back upright and let the front legs of the chair fall to the floor.

Brushing her pink hair out of her face, Asha glances at the door with sad eyes. “Why?”

“How am I supposed to know? Saw her heading toward the escape pod bay.” Hale grumbles, still frowning at me, “Maybe she’ll do us all a favor and jump ship.”

“I’ll keep you company, Ash.” Picking up the glass in front of W. Fleet’s plate, I plop into the empty seat and reach over Curran to clink it to Asha’s. I peek down at the tablet he’s holding. “Who are you messaging?”

“What?” His head jerks up and flips the tablet over. “No. No one.” Curran pops out of his seat, his tablet in one hand and his eyebrows furrowed like he’s solving a complicated math equation in his head.

“You all right?” I ask.

“It’s too noisy here to work. I’m going to my room.” He moves to leave, turning back to snag the champagne glass out of my hand before he rushes through the crowd and out the doors.

Asha hands me her untouched glass and shrugs. “Have mine. I don’t like the bubbles.”

My eyes flick traitorously toward my family’s table, and my mother’s glare is as loud as a scream. I pause with the rim of the glass touching my bottom lip and place it back on the table. “Looks like I have to go.”

Asha follows my stare and then mouths, Good luck .

I stand, raise my hands in surrender, and wind my way through the tables toward the center of the room.

Only a table away, someone gently takes my hand to stop me.

Aquilla Nole’s grip is weak, her skin wrinkled and papery.

She feels as fragile as she looks in her long-sleeve blue satin dress, but old age hasn’t made her any less fierce.

I’ve watched her eviscerate the Elysium ambassador for boring her and bring the head of Aphelion Corp close to tears for taking a seat at her table without invitation.

Somehow, I’ve earned a permanent place on her good side.

The wrinkles deepen around her eyes as she smiles up at me, patting our clasped hands. “Jupiter, love, I wondered when you would come say hello.”

“I’m sorry, Quilly. I’m a little distracted tonight. How are you?” I glance at my parents, who are engaged in conversation, and squat down, face to face with the beady eyes of the fox fur wrap hanging around her shoulders.

“As well as is to be expected. I have no business in space at my age, but if I die on a historical voyage, maybe people will remember me.” Not an heir herself, she’s the aunt of the Nole Corp head, Curran’s great-aunt, and seems to spend most of her time watching over most social events.

She’s been talking about her impending death for as long as I can remember, but I was always drawn in by her stories: spacewalks, hiking the Elysium Rise on Mars, traveling Earth.

Plus, she’s the only person in this crowd of stuffy people who’s always ready to tell the unfiltered truth.

“I will definitely remember you.” I smile, gently squeezing her delicate fingers.

A strong grip clamps on the shoulder of my jacket, yanking me up to stand. “Your mother needs you, Mr. Dalloway.”

I sigh. “Gianna, will you please call me Jupe?”

“Now, Mr. Dalloway.”

“No need to manhandle the boy,” Quilly scolds her. “Tell his mother while she’s waiting for her sweet boy to visit with a lonely old woman, she can work on pulling that stick out of her ass.”

I cough out a laugh. “Not sure that would help my situation, Quilly. I’d better go. Have a good night.”

She pulls me down into a hug and by the noise Gianna makes, I assume Quilly isn’t smiling at her over my shoulder.

I march toward my parents’ table, Gianna on my heels. Stopping in front of the empty chair, I bow my head. “You summoned me, Mother?”

“Take your seat, Jupiter.”

A strong hand forces me to sit. Gianna takes her post at the side of the room to watch and wait for my mother’s next order.

Mom leans toward me and discreetly whispers, “Calypso tells me you’ve been assigned an additional final project as a favor to them?”

“I’m working with the bot contest winner.” I match her volume.

“How charitable,” my mother says without an ounce of sincerity.

“I see it as more of a learning experience,” I say through my teeth. “Calypso asked me to help her draw the bot’s plans out before we get to Mars.”

She draws back a little, a strange expression crossing her face that I can’t quite read. Curiosity maybe?

Turning away, she picks up her champagne flute with three fingers. “Fine. As long as you also make it to your tutoring session.”

“Has everyone seen the arboretum?” Skye’s mother, Simone Dupont, surveys the table.

I almost respond, catching myself as my lips part. Better not to give away one of my hiding places.

“I toured it as soon as we boarded. There’s something about plants grown on Earth. Is it just me, or are they more fragrant?” My father sounds legitimately fascinated.

My mother sighs loudly, shaking her head. “Wouldn’t lab-grown be safer?”

“It’s all perfectly healthy. I personally oversaw the development,” Skye’s mother assures her.

I bite my lips to hide my smirk. The misstep is unlike my mother.

But her hatred of everything Earth is stronger than her love of etiquette.

The Dupont family runs the majority of agricultural operations on Mars and Earth.

They aren’t a Big Six company. I wish. Then Skye and my betrothal would be illegal.

But they’re powerful enough for my mother’s standards.

Everything from produce to the plants in every Mars garden comes from their labs and greenhouses.

“Of course, it’s comforting to know the installation was in such capable hands.” My mother forces a smile.

Dad turns to me. “You’ll love it, Jupe. One of our teams programmed the weather patterns in the room. It’s almost like being back on Earth.”

“Imagine what we’ll be able to create together once our companies are united.” Of course my mom finds a way to bring the conversation back to the impending arrangement.

“Maybe you two can take a walk after dinner to see it.” Simone nods at her daughter.

Skye catches my attention, peeking between the sprigs of holographic foliage in the middle of the table and rolling her eyes.

She is beautiful. Smart as hell and one of the coolest people I’ve ever known.

Everyone in our year or even close who’s into girls has had a thing for her at some point in time.

Except for me. That would’ve been too weird.

We’ve been friends as far back as my memory goes.

Skye is family. A fixture in my life as permanent as my sister was.

If Andi were still here, I would be practically invisible.

I could stay on Earth or disappear in a stolen escape pod, and no one would care.

That’s the life I was raised for. Until everything changed two years ago.

It was supposed to be Andi she was matched with.

They were in love. But I am not my sister.

And I feel that constant disappointment from everyone around me. My parents. Skye. Even myself.

Andi’s face flashes over reality. Her gold-brown eyes, just like mine, pleading for help. The muted sounds of pounding on glass are hollow and my arms move too slowly like I’m in water.

“Jupiter.” My mother snaps me back to the present. All eyes are on me like I’m expected to impress them all.

My pulse races. I tug at my shirt collar, fighting to get a full breath. The air feels too thick around me, like it’s caging me in.

It’s all there in front of me. I’ll train by her side until she turns over the whole company.

For the rest of my life, I’ll make every decision with the company in mind.

Always in the spotlight. A replica of my mother’s life and the lives of all the company heads before her.

I feel like I’m being launched out into space with no controls. Not steering my own way.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. This isn’t my life. It’s Andi’s.

“Excuse me.” I slide my chair back, chair legs squealing against the polished floor.

“I…I need a minute.” But I’m too far for the people at the table to hear half my sentence, darting through the room and bursting out the doors.

Halfway to the top of the wide, curved staircase, I spot Gianna following.

I break into a sprint, but she’s quick. Past the numbered doors, I hear her heavy footsteps echoing up the hall behind me.

A set of thick doors part in front of me, opening to a dim, curved hallway, lined with rows of lights in the floor and a series of gray doors, smaller and closer together than the living quarters with slender windows between them.

The pattern continues around the bend. The escape pod bay.

How fitting. And useless. I don’t have access to them and where would I go if I did?

At the sound of the thick doors opening again behind me, I move faster. Footsteps echo around the bend in the hall, and I run again, gaining distance. I can’t let her drag me back. I need a minute alone. Why is that always too much to ask?

Ahead, there’s an open door. In the middle of locked escape pods, the maintenance airlock is open across from an unlit hallway off the backside of the pod bay. I peer inside and then down the dark hall, listening to Gianna’s approaching footsteps. Two options: run or hide.

I step inside and softly latch the airlock shut, sliding down the inside of the door and out of view from the small porthole window. My lungs burn for more air, but I press my eyes closed and take shallow, quiet breaths.

Softer footsteps approach outside the door and stop.

My heart pounds in my ears.

A click vibrates in the door at my back. A lock? No. Can’t be. Is Gianna trying to get in? But the light footsteps recede, replaced by the heavy pounding of boots.

Rising to my feet, I peek out of the round glass to see a hooded figure slip into the shadows, unnoticed by Gianna, disappearing around the curve. My shoulders soften and I inhale cold air deep into my chest.

I can go back the way we came. She’ll never think to backtrack. With both hands, I pull the latch left, but it doesn’t move. Fighting a spike of panic, I brace myself and push with all my weight. Nothing. Ice races up my back.

It’s locked.